Allow TestCafe to be used for Browser Automation only (no testing)

[HopefulLlama]

Are you requesting a feature or reporting a bug?

Feature

What is the current behavior?

A test fixture is required for browser automation to work. The test controller must be run within the context of a test.

What is the expected behavior?

Browser automation to work regardless of whether in or outside the context of a test

How would you reproduce the current behavior (if this is a bug)?

Execute some browser automation outside of a test fixture.

Provide the test code and the tested page URL (if applicable)

Tested page URL:

Test code

const { t } = require('testcafe');

t.navigateTo('https://github.com/DevExpress/testcafe/issues/new');

Specify your

• operating system: Windows 10
• testcafe version: 0.20.3
• node.js version: 8.10.0

[miherlosev]

Execute some browser automation outside of a test fixture.

Could you please describe the scenario where it is necessary?

[HopefulLlama]

I have used TestCafe before and like the simplicity in setup and API.

Hence I therefore wanted to use it to automate some forum activity. The testing part is not important to me in this case.

I could kludge it by having this code inside a test fixture, but it will always pass.

[azohra]

This would also allow TestCafe to be easily adopted by teams who are currently using Selenium or another test framework such as Cucumber, Mocha, or Jest. Great request.

[pendenaor]

One use case in this repo, but this feature would greatly simplify it.

[HopefulLlama]

Is there any progress on this request?

[AndreyBelym]

We haven't made much progress in this direction. Different TestCafe subsystems like сompilers and browser connections are tightly coupled, so it will take a lot of time to separate the browser automation subsystem from other TestCafe code.
 
However, we would like to have this feature in TestCafe, so it will be nice if you make a PR.

[miherlosev]

Hi folks,

Extracting the browser automation part from TestCafe would require numerous changes, and we do not see much interest in this among the community. This is why, we decided to not implement this feature. However, if someone creates a PR, we will review it.